HR Experiment - Fail!

Had trouble with my long spin session yesterday. The first 45 min were okay, then I blew up. I'm sure it is partly because I went out harder than I usually do for long rides - keeping my HR around 145, when I'm usually closer to 130. It was kind of an experiment after Jaime said she read somewhere that women our age should have our HR well over 140 for long rides. I was skeptical since I knew at that effort I'd have trouble talking normally. An hour in, I had to reduce my effort to a HR around 125-130 and then struggled with that!! After the experiment, I'm still convinced one formula does not work for all and that was way too hard an effort for a long ride. My right leg was giving me issues too. I really struggled even to do 2 hrs 45 min. Three hours (the original goal) was out of the question. No big deal since I'm still way ahead of my training schedule.
I got a kick out of the Garmin Connect map after uploading my long spin session. I used the Garmin only for timing and HR purposes, but forgot to put it on indoor mode, so it still tried to follow me with GPS. Here's what it looked like:





lol!!

With the right leg issue, I'm taking a week off from running. I have races the next two weekends so I want to give the leg a chance to do some healing.

Spinning, Wear Testing and Racing - A Few of my Favorite Things

This is the way to do long spinning sessions - with pals and good movies! I packed up my gear and headed 2 miles down the road to Jaime's house where we put in 3 hours of spinning while watching Apollo 13. Jaime's distance sensor put her at 50 miles. I'm sure mine was less since she was on a CX bike and I was on Speedy (Trek hardtail MTB). Tried to keep the HR in the 120s and averaged 129. Not too bad. Took several much-needed rests (only 2-3 minutes) to stretch and give our rear ends a break from the saddle. Longest ride in a LONG time!

I'm very excited about the next few days/weeks! Tomorrow I get to test drive the new New Balance 890 at our Monday night group run. Then next Thursday I get to test the Saucony Kinvara. I will definitely give reviews of each. I just love testing new shoes! In fact, I just recently got accepted in the Brooks Wear Test Program.  Of course, when I start wear testing Brooks, there will be no reviews. The Brooks shoes will be shoes that haven't been released yet. Kind of exciting!

On Tuesday I will do my first 20-miler in AGES! I just love long runs! After this run I'll decide whether I want to do Running Fit's Trail Marathon on May 1st.  The run will kind of be the test. If I can handle that distance, I can do the marathon.... :-)

Finally, in two weeks, my race drought will be over! I've already done 2 races this year, but it still seems like forever! My next race on March 12 is the Land Between the Lakes 23k, a trail race down in Kentucky that I hear nothing but good things about. Matty will be doing the 50 mile race. We're both really looking forward to it. Race season is starting!! Yay!!

Spinning to Chicken Run

Got in a great spinning session on Speedy today while watching the movie Chicken Run (hilarious). Disciplined myself to keep my effort easy. My heart rate was between 120-125 the entire time. I sure wish I had a distance/cadence sensor on my bike. I have no idea how far I rode. I only know my time was 1 1/2 hrs. I suppose it is just as useful to train by time and come spring, I can start keeping track of distance again. Or I can break down and buy a sensor for my bike! :-)  Nah, I'd rather use the money to buy race registrations!

No running today. No running tomorrow. Super 5k race Sunday. Two rest days before the big test. That's how I'm thinking of it, anyway. I'm very excited!

I did another workout from the 100 push-up challenge. The workout itself was a challenge! But I did it. I didn't do the pull-up workout. There's a little twinge between my shoulder blades and I figured push-ups was enough! :-)  The workout looked like this:

• Set 1  -  12 push ups
• Set 2  -  17 push ups
• Set 3  -  13 push ups
• Set 4  -  13 push ups
• Set 5  -  Max out  (I did 19)

Phew! I was feeling that one! :-)

Sent in my passport renewal paperwork today so I will be ready to run the Detroit Marathon this fall. Running across the bridge into Canada means lots of security measures for this marathon! It is worth it though!
GO PACK!!!!!

Moderate Spin on Speedy

I've been neglecting the bike since I've been able to run more and more miles. I've also been lazy about bringing my bike back upstairs and setting it up on the trainer. I have no trouble running or riding for hours on end, but I drag my feet about a simple chore of setting up my bike? What's up with that!? :-) Anyway, I was afraid I'd have trouble with my ride today, but I didn't. It was great! I did my spinning session at an effort slightly harder than "easy" and kept it there for the entire hour (while watching the Transformers movie). Distance can only be a guess (~17 miles?) and unimportant. I'm glad my rear end has not forgotten how a bike saddle feels. That was my biggest concern. lol!!

I need to become more consistent on the bike as I have a 100 mile mountain bike race in mid-June! I definitely don't want to show up at the start line unprepared!

Free Medical Advice! (yes, from a physician!)

Here’s how badly I miss running. I took my finisher’s certificate from my best half-marathon off my computer desktop because it made me so sad to see it everyday. Now there’s a peaceful nature scene. It’s not really helping.

I do have a bit of good news. I mentioned before that I don’t have insurance and therefore can’t see a doctor about my heel injury. Well, yesterday in our local paper, there was an article about a free clinic at the local running store put on by a podiatrist who is also a runner!!!! How awesome is that!! He’ll be doing free foot physicals, biometrical evaluations and gait analysis. I’ll be the first one there for sure! I kinda feel like Julie Andrews in the Sound of Music – I must have done something right because fate is smiling on me! haha!!

Because of the clinic which is planned for next Tuesday, I’m putting off my tentative return to running until after I get advice from the doctor. I was going to try building up to a jog from a brisk walk on Sunday, but I think it’d be wise to hold off for those two extra days. After three weeks, what is two more days??

I missed reporting on my last workout because the dratted TV was blaring while I was trying to type. I’m one of those who can’t focus with noise in the background, so I gave up on blogging that day. Anyway, the last two days were great cross-training days that found me on the stationary bike (upright and recumbent again) and the elliptical for cardio. Yesterday I did my core and upper body strength training and today I did a little more core work and legs.

Since I’m not running, I figured this would be the perfect time to try a spinning class with my husband. He’d already done the class once and loved it, so I joined him yesterday. For all I know, it may have been a great class. However, I could only hear about a quarter of what the instructor was saying, so I couldn’t follow along very well. The music was so loud that the instructor sounded more like an adult from the Peanuts cartoons, “Wawawa wawawaah.” Then my legs starting cramping up and I couldn’t continue to pedal, so about 45 minutes into the hour-long class I got up and left. I kinda felt like a wuss, but if ya can’t pedal, ya can’t very well do a cycling class, eh? Maybe I’ll give it one more try and tell the instructor at the beginning that I couldn’t hear him last time. Matt (husband) said he had a harder time understanding him too – that last class he was easier to understand, so maybe there’s hope.